foodtweeks™ Announces Partnership with Alameda County Community Food Bank to Encourage Donations While Supporting Weight Management

"We are excited to partner with foodtweeks™ as we passionately pursue a hunger-free community,” said Suzan Bateson, Executive Director. “foodtweeks™’ approach aligns with Alameda County Community Food Bank’s mission by promoting healthier food choices and also offering its users an easy, meaningful way to make a difference in our community. foodtweeks™ was created with food banks in mind, and we’re honored to benefit from their ingenuity.”

foodtweeks™, a free mobile app that combines weight management with feeding the hungry, today announced that Alameda County Community Food Bank in Oakland, CA has joined the nationwide ranks of foodtweeks™-affiliated food banks.

This partnership was made to benefit the community by decreasing the calorie intake of those wishing to control their weight, and redistributing those calories to people who are struggling to provide enough food for themselves. Each time a foodtweeks™ user reports “tweeking” (trimming calories from their food), Alameda County Community Food Bank will receive donations from foodtweeks™, enabling the Food Bank to distribute an equal number of nutritious calories to hungry families, at no cost to the app user.

To increase the public’s awareness, foodtweeks™ has devised a way to make the impact even greater. By posting a “tweek“ on Facebook or Twitter, the app user will double or triple each donation they make to one of their local food banks, whether they live in California or Massachusetts, the nationwide network of food banks allows them to participate. In this way, weight-conscious consumers all across the country can be “heroes” who serve their communities by feeding the hungry. They can even do this without sacrificing their favorite foods by trimming calories from them in an easy, enjoyable way.

“foodtweeks™ is proud and excited to support Alameda County Community Food Bank,” said Elisa Shannon, foodtweeks™ Executive Vice President of Partnership Development. “Alameda County Community Food Bank is a highly committed and respected organization that provides outstanding service to food-insecure members of our community.”

As a food bank that services 1 in 5 residents of Alameda County, Alameda County Community Food Bank is exactly the type of organization that can use the crowd-sourced support and involvement of a mobile app community to fight hunger. Providing food to 116,000 community members each month is difficult and inspiring work which proves the importance of advocacy, outreach, and education around food insecurity cannot be overstated.

”We are excited to partner with foodtweeks™ as we passionately pursue a hunger-free community,” said Suzan Bateson, Executive Director of the Alameda County Community Food Bank. “foodtweeks™’ approach aligns with Alameda County Community Food Bank’s mission by promoting healthier food choices and also offering its users an easy, meaningful way to make a difference in our community. foodtweeks™ was created with food banks in mind, and we’re honored to benefit from their ingenuity.”

This ingenuity is part of the foodtweeks™ unique approach to weight management that also partners with donations to food banks. Users simply tell the app what food they are thinking of buying, eating or preparing. The app instantly displays images of suggested “tweeks” that remove enough calories to make a positive difference – but not in a way that changes the taste or leaves users hungry.

foodtweeks™ maintains a crowdsourced picture database of more than 44,000 small changes that show users how to “tweek” everything from a particular brand of cheeseburger at a national restaurant chain to grocery store purchases, and homemade dishes of every kind.

foodtweeks™ is rapidly expanding its partner-base to food banks all across the nation, with more joining each week, according to Ms. Shannon, herself a former food bank executive. Food banks that wish to affiliate with foodtweeks™ may contact Ms. Shannon by email at elisa@foodtweeks.com .

Jay Walker, the inventor of foodtweeks™, is also the chairman of Patent Properties and curator of TEDMED, the health and medicine edition of the famous TED conference. A noted entrepreneur, Mr. Walker has founded three companies that serve more than 50 million customers. He is best known as the creator of Priceline, which brought a new level of value to the travel industry.